diva

Diva comes from Italian diva ("diva, goddess"), from Latin dīva ("goddess"), the female form of dīvus, which could mean "divine" or a deified mortal. That in turn traces back through Old Latin deivā to Proto-Italic *deiwā and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *deywós, meaning "god."

The word began as a term for a literal goddess or divine being in Latin, and Italian narrowed it to describe a woman of goddess-like stature — first opera's leading ladies, then stars in general.

It shares its root with dīvus, the masculine Latin word for a divine or deified being, showing the word's roots in ideas of godliness before it ever meant a diva in the modern sense.